1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : 20

At The Boardless
there was constant speculation about Selvi's early life. Varma heard at the
gossip table that Selvi had been brought up by her mother in a back row of
Vinayak Mudali Street, in a small house with tiles falling off, with not enough
cash at home to put the tiles back on the roof and had learnt music from her,
practising with her brother and sister accompanying her on, their instruments.

At
this time Mohan had a photo studio on Market Road. Once Selvi's mother brought
the girl to be photographed for a school magazine after she had won the first
prize in a music competition. Thereafter Mohan visited them casually now and
then as a sort of well-wisher of the family, sat in the single chair their home
provided, drank coffee, and generally behaved as a benign god to that family by
his advice and guidance. Sometimes he would request Selvi to sing, and then
dramatically leave the chair and sit down on the floor cross-legged with his
eyes shut, in an attitude of total absorption in her melody, to indicate that
in the presence of such an inspired artist it would be blasphemous to sit high
in a chair.

(i)What was Selvi's work ?

(ii)How many persons are referred to in the
paragraph ? Who are they ?

(iii)Why could the house not be repaired ?

(iv)Who taught Selvi music ? '

(v)How did Mohan meet Selvi ?

(vi)Why did Selvi's mother take her for a photograph
?

(vii)How do we know that they had very little
furniture in the house ?

(viii)What was the relationship of Mohan with the
family ?

(ix)What was the reaction of Mohan to Selvi's
singing ?

(x)In the last sentence to whom does the phrase
'inspired artist' refer ?

2.Read the passage given below and make a precis
of it in one-third its original length. Give an appropriate title for the
passage.

Photoaxis is the automatic
movement of an organism either towards or away from a light. Have you ever seen
moths flocking to the nearest source of bright ' light, and wondered why this
was so ? Well, now you know that the source of this phenomenon lies in
photoaxis. Creatures like cockroaches and
moths make a beeline for the nearest source of light, no matter how dangerous
that source might be. Butterflies and moths come from an insect group called
Lepidoptera, the fourth largest insect group in. ! terms of species diversity.
The name Lepidoptera means 'scale wings' and moths fit this description
wonderfully as their wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales that are
less than l/100th of an inch wide.Moths have been around for about
140 million years and studies tell us that they are sensitive to particular
wavelengths of light* For instance, a white light will attract more moths than
a yellow light. Scientific research has shown that some types of moths are
known to migrate, and they depend on the night sky for navigation. In fact,
studies have shown that moths might use the moon as the central reference point
so that they move through the night following the • moon's path across the
night sky.Moths can't distinguish between
the moon and any other source of light — that , is why they are generally
confused when they end up near another source, like a light bulb or a fire.So, if they are confused, why do
moths stay fluttering around lights ? This is because a moth's eyes contain
light sensors which they adjust according to the > v amount of light that
these sensors detect. But once they come too close to a bright light, the
moth's eye sensors experience difficulty going back into the dark, as the tiny
creature is rendered blind for a while.

3.Rearrange the following sentences in sequential
order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph : 10

(i)When she was taken to Madras the doctors tried
hard to stop the growth of the infection.

(ii)The family had gone there for their annual
pilgrimage.

(iii)'About eight years ago, Sudha was a promising
seventeen-year-old dancer.

(iv):
Finally, they were forced to amputate her right leg from about eight

centimetres
below the knee.

[1] In the terrible months that followed,
Sudha's search began — to find a way of dancing again.

(vi)M3be had given more than eighty
performances.

(vii) Perhaps, she was not
treated properly at the local hospital to which she was rushed.

(viii)?Then, one day she was injured in
a road accident about twenty-five kilometres from Tiruchchirappalli, Tamil
Nadu.

(ixH In any case,
her injuries resulted in gangrenous infection.

(x).r Almost
everyone in the audience knew the story of Sudha's courage.

4.Correct any ten of the following sentences : 20

(i)" It is now or ever.

(ii)' Passengers should reach the
station latest half-an-hour before the train time.